“Thank you for dinner, Chase. Do you want to come in for a bit? I have some ice cream in the freezer.”
He shook his head. “I better get home.”
She nodded and waved goodbye, closing the door on any hope of salvaging the date. Robotically, she put her leftover steak and potato in the fridge and kicked off her shoes.
Lina bounced out of her bedroom. “How was it?”
Ashley forced a smile. “Good. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.” Tonight, she didn’t want anyone to know the disappointment she felt inside.
***
Chase banged his head against his steering wheel. He hadn’t let her explain because he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear her apologize for using him, or worse, apologize for kissing him and not meaning it. He definitely didn’t want to hear about Reid.
Women only tried to make a guy jealous for one reason. He couldn’t fathom any universe where someone like Reid could capture a woman’s heart and keep it, but somehow guys like him always won. He’d seen it plenty of times. There was no doubt Ashley feared Reid. But clearly, a part of her also still loved him. Why else would she have thrown herself into Chase’s arms right in front of the guy?
He drove home and put on a happy face for Beth, telling her a little about the restaurant and their fight over paying for dinner. She asked how things would be at work now, and Chase suddenly had another thing to add to his pile of worries.
He changed his clothes and climbed into bed, knowing sleep would elude him for a while. When he’d ordered the worry stone for Ashley, he’d bought an extra and he kept it on his nightstand. He picked it up, tossed it in the air, and caught it.
What was he going to do tomorrow? He didn’t feel like bringing Ashley another gift, but if he stopped she might realize it was him, and right now, the motivation to keep his identity a secret was really strong. He needed to see it through until layoff day.
In the other room, Tyler snorted in his sleep and muttered something about missing his candy bag. Chase didn’t like to think of himself as a single parent, but that didn’t change reality. He needed to be careful about the kind of person he brought into the family, even as his girlfriend. Kids got attached fast. Not that Ashley even wanted to be his girlfriend. Hopelessness washed over him.
Maybe it was time to look for someone more compatible. Possibly someone who also had kids. Beth had teased him about trying online dating from time to time, but he’d balked at the thought. Tonight, it didn’t seem as far-fetched. He didn’t dare pick up his phone and look right now. If he went down that rabbit hole, it would be morning, his alarm would go off, and he’d have spent the whole night stressing over women’s profiles, wondering if they were crazy, wondering if they only pretended to like kids, wondering if they had ex-fiancés they still held secret feelings for.
Tonight had definitely determined one thing. It was time to stop pining for Ashley and find someone who could love him whole-heartedly and hopefully love his siblings too.
He closed his eyes and wished for sleep, but his mind decided what he needed right then was to remember the feel of Ashley’s arms around him, the guiding pressure of her lips, the apologetic look in her eye when she finally let him go. He rolled over and punched his pillow. Five minutes later, he got up and turned on the TV.
***
Chase gave her a bland smile when she came into the office Tuesday morning and went back to typing. Well, that said a lot. She took the hit to her heart and sat down at her desk. She always put her purse in the bottom drawer, and when she went to drop it inside, she noticed a little gold chain with a bar pendant. She gave a little gasp. It wasn’t an expensive piece of jewelry, but it was jewelry, picked out just for her, with no expectation of anything in return.
The bar pendant had the wordBloomand a small flower etched into it. She rubbed her handagainst the word and then lifted the chain and undid the latch, putting it on. She had to know who her secret admirer was. They couldn’t go on like this. It didn’t seem fair, when she knew in a few days she’d never come into work again, and someone had gone to all this work for nothing. She should at least get the chance to thank him.
There were two assignments in her inbox, and she got to work setting the articles into the spots left in the newsletter, but once she had that out of the way, she stared at her feeble secret admirer list. Gordon, Brian, Flynn, Dean, Rex, Chase.
Man, she wanted it to be Chase. But wanting wouldn’t make it him. Instead, she approached Gordon’s desk. The guy was quiet and unassuming. He also had a perfect view of her desk at all times and wasn’t the gossiping type.
“Hey, Gordon.”
He looked up from his screen and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Not much. Did you happen to notice anyone lurking at my desk lately? Like maybe this morning before I came in?”
“Yeah, Flynn was fiddling with your knickknacks this morning. But Chase came over and made him return to his desk.” Gordon went back to typing. “Why, did he mess something up?”
“No, nothing like that.” She couldn’t accept that it was Flynn. Not yet. She sat down and scooted the chair closer to Gordon. There could be no more beating around the bush.
Gordon gave her an odd look. “You need something else? That ad I’m working on is almost done. I just needed to get approval on the verbiage from upstairs.”
Ashley bit her nail. “I’m just going to outright ask. You’re not my secret admirer, are you?”
Gordon stopped typing and stared at her. Maybe seeing her for the first time as more than a coworker he needed to send documents to. “Um, no. You have a secret admirer?”
“Someone’s been leaving little gifts at my desk. I’m hoping you can help me figure out who it might be.”
Gordon rubbed his neck. “It sounds like a problem for H.R. I don’t really want to get in the middle of anything.”
